When I first started playing clarinet I used to use the tip of my toungue when tounging, but my teacher said that that is the incorrect way to toungue. She said that you anchor/put the tip of your toungue against your lower teeth and the part of your toungue that touches the reed is closer to the middle. About a year ago I got myself to start tounging this way, my teacher has always stressed this way of playing. I finally gave it a good try and learned it although it took some adjusting, figuring she was correct and that maybe it would help my staccato. My staccato seems to have improved but I don't practice my clarinet as much because I am becoming more serious about the oboe. I recently learned at camp that the way I toungue is called "anchor tounging" and that not many people play that way. Any comments?

I taought myself anchor toungueing and never really came clean about it to my first teacher. When I was seventeen I forced myself to relearn tip to tip style and I gained a lot more sensitivity and ability to vary the articulation. Now I do things that depend on that sensitivity. But I still anchor toungue once in a while for a certain effect. I would recommend seriously investigating the difference in sound you hear before comitting to the anchor. I can't think of any players I know who use this technique as the base of their articulation. How bout you guys?

Gary Van Cott wrote:
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My teacher taught anchor tonguing too. That was a long time ago. It isn't at all popular today and I have heard some people say that you can't tongue really fast that way.

The so-called "tip to tip" method is the most popular.

I wouldn't think that anchor tonguing would work at all on the oboe. What do you do on it?

i used to anchor tounge too. i recently switched to tip-to-tip because it gives me better control of the my sound near g (top of the staff) to high b, which weren't so great before. also, it's allowed me to tounge faster. as far as double tounging- i tried to learn when i anchor tounged- and i disagree that it's impossible, but i don't find it that necessary. many great players only single tounge and there are ways of adding slurs to that they are less obtrusive-- but, if you can get double tounging to sound good, more power to you. other than robert spring, i haven't heard many people who can do it- and i've never heard a teacher or clinician say that it's necessary in order to succeed. at any rate- i don't believe anchor tounging is "the correct way" to tounge. i only did it because no one said anything until i was already doing it, and it felt more natural. i'm glad i'm changing to tip to tip, however- it seems to be working better for me.

Most teachers teach that "tip-to-tip" is the only correct way to articulate. I anchor tongue (due to physiological issues which hamper me from tonguing the other way) and have no problem keeping up with tip-to-tippers.

If it's working for you, i don't see any reason to change. Though i haven't started oboe yet so i'm not sure what articulation method is used there.

William Fuller wrote:
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If you "anchor tongue," you will never be able to develope double or triple tonguing techniques that may be needed later on in your career.

Double and triple tonguing on clarinet isn't used much at all anyways. It's very very hard to double tongue cleanly and make it convincing. It's really only best to use if you're playing something where you're in the background. My teacher's been playing for 40+ years and he has never used double tonguing, much less triple.

William Fuller wrote:
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If you "anchor tongue," you will never be able to develope double or triple tonguing techniques that may be needed later on in your career.

My teacher taught be to anchor tongue. Two of her students who also anchor tongue are attending DePaul Unversity now. One started going there as a freshman last year and the other is going to be a freshman there this way.

arh wrote:
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again- don't worry about multiple tounging.
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arh -
I'll agree with you for 99.9% of the repertoire. However, there's a number of new and/or avant-garde pieces that require such techniques as multiple tonguing, slap tongue, multiphonics, circular breathing, etc.. To <i>avoid</i> learning those techniques is to deny yourself the opportunity to play such pieces. Such techniques aren't for the beginner or intermediate student (we've got enough to learn already!) but as an advanced student it's something to work on.

Mike - I remember that you're working on and performing modern music at the grad level. Any thoughts?

I accidentally taught myself to anchor tongue when I began playing the clarinet mainly because if I used the tip of my tongue this reed ended up hissing due to too much spit. I wished I had have persisted early on because when I later decided to unlearn this technique it has required a lot of work and indeed I am still working after a year. I was never happy with my tonguing when I anchor-tongued it was slow and my staccato was terrible. I still have problems with speed tonguing but it has improved markedly. If you can tongue tip-to-tip then there is no way in the world you could convince me that anchor-tonguing is better.